Walking, losing weight and taking photos of life in Virginia.

Posts from the ‘D’s Writing’ category

First of all, just let me say that UFO’s do exist. And if you don’t believe this is true just go someplace else. Read no further. This post is for readers who understand and accept the notion that the universe is a great big, wide, wonderful place. And there is lots of room in it for other civilizations.

I have seen a UFO. I have talked to people in my small circle of humanity who have seen them. My wife saw one long ago! There are lots of videos of them on YouTube. There are reports of aliens who crashed into our planet and died. They were, of course, carted away by the government for further study. And the government has spared no effort in covering up and denying any knowledge of them.

There are even documents around that explain the rationale of the government in doing this. And I can understand, even sympathize, with their reasoning. Governments need to control their populations. Hobbes would agree. You can’t have millions of people doing their own thing. Not in this world. So the government cannot recognize that there is a greater power with military capacities far superior, UP THERE, doing “it’s” own thing. And who knows what it really wants to do? Maybe it wants to enslave us all? Who can tell?

But that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize the truth. And, as I said, just go somewhere else if you believe Spielburg was just spinning his wheels when he made E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Moving on to the present mystery about the jet that vanished . . .

Millions of folks out there have seen UFO’s. So it makes sense that they are a presence around our planet and they have technology that is very far beyond our own. And some of their spacecraft could clearly be quite large and capable of absorbing a passenger jet. But did this happen to the Malaysia aircraft?

I’m not certain. But I think it’s a strong possibility. And I would like to give you a quote from an interesting book called The PK Man by Jeffrey Mishlove.

Then, on July 22, 1985, Owens sent me a letter threatening the NASA space program once again – specifically the space shuttles. He wrote: There are four space shuttles at NASA . . . Challenger, Atlantis, Discovery and Columbia. As of July 22, my UFO’s were directing destructive powers at these shuttles and the NASA program. Heretofore my UFOs have tried to be compassionate . . . simply destroying major experiments aboard spacecraft. But now time is short . . . they need their UFO base in order to hold back war on Earth . . . help the human race . . . and help the face of Earth itself. So, in order to try to pierce the armor of the bureaucracy blocking the UFO base they intend to attack one or more of the above-mentioned shuttles. They warn that any astronauts going up in these shuttles do so at their own peril, having been fairly warned in advance.

Ted Owens, the subject of Mishlove’s book, sent this letter to the author and on January 28, 1986 the Challenger disaster happened. It was a weather related tragedy that involved freezing temperatures. Weather is something that UFOs apparently manipulate with impunity. It also involved the stupidity of the bureaucracy allowing a launch when the O-rings of the shuttle were unable to do their proper job.

It’s important to remember (and this episode makes clear the point) that a bureaucracy can be a mammoth, stupid thing. Governments are the sum of their parts and we can only hope they guide us in helpful ways. Let’s wonder, for example, about the intelligence level exhibited by planners in Japan who built nuclear power plants a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean and then built a wall around them that was not high enough to stop the surge of ocean waves in a tsunami. Let’s ask a fifth grade student if there are tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean from time to time? “And what will happen if a large wave hits this wall?”

So now we have NATO defending a country that is being split in two by the Russian Federation. There are nuclear forces on each side. It is a tense situation. On the news in the last few days we have seen F-16 fighter jets sent to Poland which shares a long border with the Ukraine. Each side is gearing up militarily to advance its objectives. Each side has a vast array of nuclear weapons.

And suddenly a passenger jet disappears. Could it be that this is a message to the governments of the world? I don’t really know. But I am often quite amazed and thankful that we have survived over 50 years of nuclear proliferation. And I wonder if there has not been another player in this drama which has kept us from destroying ourselves. We do so much enjoy playing with nuclear fire. And we do have such a talent for burning ourselves.

Radar Playback of the moment the aircraft disappeared . . .

Update: It’s several weeks later and still no sign of the jet. Media coverage is getting slow. So can we say the jet has just disappeared?

Can we begin to accept that a UFO, for whatever reason, possibly ATE it?

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I have tried to find good movies to watch in the past by searching for great movie lists and this one didn’t show up on Google. And I was always disappointed by the lists of films I found. They contained a large number of popular movies. Some of them I had seen and many of them I was not interested in viewing.

But the list of movies at RogerEbert.com is different. The very first movie on the list is Departures, a Japanese movie with subtitles. I didn’t read the review preferring to take in the movie without any knowledge about it. And it was a wonderful movie, deeply moving and dealing with subjects that are rarely, if ever, addressed. It is about life and death from the point of view of your average person who has trouble finding a job or making a marital relationship work. I don’t want to say much about it. If you haven’t seen it you really need to dial up Netflix and enjoy a couple hours with it. It starts slowly but builds upon itself in a way that is wonderfully cathartic.

Not all of the movies on this list are available on Netflix. It may be necessary to look around for some of them on Amazon. But it’s worth the effort or the minimal cost to check them out if you enjoy movies that are more than just “entertainment”.

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I will never forget the day I met her. My buddy, Lewis, wanted to hitchhike from Boston to an ocean beach down in Connecticut. He said we should invite his friend, Deb. I do believe he had a crush on her but I had never seen Lewis with a girl throughout our college time together. And I felt that he was probably not going to go out with this one.

So the day arrived for our adventure and we went over to her apartment near Northeastern University, knocked on the door and she opened it. She smiled.

And I felt as if all the angels in the world had just decided to sing to us. It was one of those moments you never forget. We were picked up by a young, hippie couple on the access rode to the highway and headed for the ocean. On the way there we smoked a few joints and enjoyed the adventure. We were all very young and high on life, among other things. Deb had an amazing smile and she was clearly enjoying the day. There was something very magical about her and I was not surprised when we reached the beach and large swaths of it were tinted a dark red by the presence of some sort of tiny sea creature. I was already half in love as we swam together in the warm,dark ocean waters.

It was 1972 and we lived in Boston, a cauldron of revolutionary ideas. Months earlier I had emerged from the subway on Boston Commons during an antiwar riot. Police cars were being set on fire and shop windows smashed. Everyone was running around as I walked to the next subway entrance and decided it was best to stay underground. Timothy Leary had conducted his LSD experiments a few years earlier on our Boston University campus at the Marsh Chapel. Many of my professors abandoned normal grading practices and gave us passing grades so that we could spend less time studying and more time doing what was important, protesting against the war.

For someone who had grown up in the sedate 1950’s it was all radically different and while I would never do any hard drugs I enjoyed an occasional joint or even LSD, its older cousin. Deb and I were inseparable after our first meeting as we tried to make sense out of our relationship in the context of the times and the culture that was all around us. She was an artist, a dancing student at the Boston Conservatory. I was an English major at BU. I thought I might like to be a writer. We were not thinking about having a family and all that this might entail. We were free spirits in a world that seemed to have gone mad.

We decided to get married and found an apartment on Peterborough Street near Fenway Park under the gaze of the Prudential Center. We were both still attending classes and enjoying our young lives. Lewis was still around and we spent time with him. But we really didn’t have a life plan. I can remember one time we took LSD together and went out in our bare feet, laughing and dancing, around the park. The next day I noticed that there was broken glass all over the sidewalk and realized, because our feet were uncut that we had never gone out. On another LSD trip Deb, sitting in front of me, became a goddess. Her eyes were transformed into deep pools of bliss.

We did LSD a few times, probably less than ten, until I realized we were clearly not on the right road if we wanted to have an enduring, married relationship. I found a job after graduating but it was not a good job. Jobs were very scarce in those days. It was a lot like it is now and in a place like Boston, particularly, you were competing with a lot of other young folks.

I loved to watch Deb dance at her school. She was an elfin spirit on stage. And then one day she came home and told me she had dropped out. Her father was paying her tuition and I didn’t understand why she had done this. We hadn’t discussed it. Looking back, I realize that this was the way we were . . . we had a child, a beautiful little girl, Jena. But we never discussed this either. We were caught up in the moment and, eventually, we faltered. We lost our way and a few years later divorced.

Last week, on Valentine’s Day, Deb passed away. It has been 35 years since we were together and she has been in poor health for quite some time. I was out walking this morning when I suddenly felt her presence. We were young again and walking on the beach, laughing and enjoying the sun and the wind. It was as if all the intervening years had never happened. She was here! Beautiful and laughing. Her magic on display.

This happened as I walked up a hill. On the other side is a creek that Deb played in as a child. It is one of the truly amazing coincidences of this life that she lived within a mile as a child from where Betsy and I live now in Virginia. There is no rational reason why this should be. It’s a big country.

It just happens to be true. And I realized that her pain is gone and we are friends again. She wanted me to know this.

There are a few people in our lives who change them, forever. They go with us to heaven, hell and every place in between. Deb and I had that kind of relationship. I’m so relieved now to know that we finally got back to the place where we started. And we can enjoy our ethereal relationship without the constraints of this world. We don’t need to plan any more, Deb.

On February 14, 2014 our beloved wife, mother, sister, and grandmother, Deborah Slesinger Whealton departed this life to go to her heavenly home. She is survived by her husband of 35 years John Whealton, her brother David Slesinger, her children Jena Jordan and her husband Michael, Jeremy Thomas and his wife Sarah, Katie Myer and her husband Chris, Benjamin Whealton and Jacob Whealton, 8 grandchildren; Jordan, Jillian, Charlie, Joya, Kate, Raleigh, Molly, and Elliot.
A memorial Service to celebrate her life will be held at 2:00pm on Sunday, February 23, 2014 at Tikvat Israel Synagogue, located at 2715 Grove Ave. Richmond, VA

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It just seems too much like politics to me. Everyone has a group of followers. I had a group of followers. Most of them have probably left by now. . . Maybe they still come around. But you never know! They don’t comment much!!

People don’t comment much. I don’t comment. We can read something and have thoughts about it. Maybe even happy thoughts. But we don’t write them down. And then, the writer who helped us have those thoughts has NO IDEA! No feedback. Did anybody read this?

I have no idea. But once in a great while I look at what I have written. I especially look at the poetry. And I think “this is great” or “this sucks” and then I remember all the years that have gone by and all the moments, the work, the inspiration that somehow emerged from a fat person (I have lost a lot of weight). And I affirm that I (sorry about all the “I’s) will never, ever let this blog go unto digital heaven. It will be resubscribed every year until your blogging buddy is DONE. Because, I would like parts of it to be at the funeral home up on a screen (hopefully if we have some nerdy types available to make it happen). Or, at least, it will be online so that, perhaps, someone will look back and see . .

.

Yes. . . he had a life. We can appreciate that for a moment. And then, off we go.

Yes, off we ALL go. And I (sorry, once again) will be somewhere after a nice break from “I” and (hopefully) a time of peace in the NOT “I”.

I’m almost there now. And I don’t care about followers or numbers or anything that has to do with groups. Because it’s not about groups. Unless you are a politician. It’s about the Universe and each of us. And the universe will decide who connects with us. Each of us.

There are children in the world at this moment who are eating dirt and nobody cares about them. Except the Universe. And, of course, we care about them even though we have no idea who they are . . . We care about them in a general sense.

And nobody keeps track of those stats. We just care for each other. We love the little children. But blogging doesn’t really matter. There are traces of brilliant light everywhere. Yes, even here. But I wouldn’t worry about it. Just be alive. Social media is not where it’s at. The universe cares about us. Social media doesn’t give a crap what we do.

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It has been cold and rainy here in Virginia for awhile now and Betsy was sick with a stomach virus that laid her up in bed for a few days. So as the day approached for the Andrea Bocelli concert in Washington DC I was not sure if we would even be able to go. But my lovely wife rallied and the skies cleared up, although it remained cold. We drove two hours up to the southern reach of the Metro system and glided the rest of the way to the Verizon Center.

And so it turned out to be one of the loveliest experiences we have had in quite a long time. Emerging from the subway there were tents and vendors with many, many Christmas items next to the National Portrait Gallery.

This made someone happy. Can you tell? Then we went inside to view an exhibit entitled, A Democracy of Images Photographs. Truly fascinating photos by photographers in America from the time the art first emerged in the early 1800’s until today.

Then we went to dinner at Corduroy with a good friend of ours, Kurt, who has worked at the Library of Congress for over thirty years. And then we said goodbye and headed for the concert. Andrea was amazing as usual. There were five encores ending with his amazing rendition of Nessun Dorma. I never really expected to see Andrea Bocelli in concert so this was an amazing treat, a Christmas experience I will never forget. Betsy had a great time, too, and we enjoyed the adventure together. Back to the Metro we went and down I-95 where construction is ever present. We got home well after one in the morning and I was asleep about two minutes after my head hit the pillow. Daily walking has its rewards. Here are some photos.

Please share!

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Just saying. . .

"You must understand the Whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life."
~J Krishnamurti